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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Load balancing and closed chain multiple arm control

The authors give the general dynamical equations for several rigid link manipulators rigidly grasping a commonly held rigid object. It is shown that the number of arm-configuration degrees of freedom lost due to imposing the closed-loop kinematic constraints is the same as the number of degrees of freedom gained for controlling the internal forces of the closed-chain system. This number is equal to the dimension of the kernel of the Jacobian operator which transforms contact forces to the net forces acting on the held object, and it is shown that this kernel can be identified with the subspace of controllable internal forces of the closed-chain system. Control of these forces makes it possible to regulate the grasping forces imparted to the held object or to control the load taken by each arm. It is shown that the internal forces can be influenced without affecting the control of the configuration degrees of freedom. Control laws of the feedback linearization type are shown to be useful for controlling the location and attitude of a frame fixed with respect to the held object, while simultaneously controlling the internal forces of the closed-chain system. Force feedback can be used to linearize and control the system even when the held object has unknown mass properties. If saturation effects are ignored, an unconstrained quadratic optimization can be performed to distribute the load optimally among the joint actuators.

Kreutz, Kenneth↗
NASA NTRS1989

A discrete decentralized variable structure robotic controller

A decentralized trajectory controller for robotic manipulators is designed and tested using a multiprocessor architecture and a PUMA 560 robot arm. The controller is made up of a nominal model-based component and a correction component based on a variable structure suction control approach. The second control component is designed using bounds on the difference between the used and actual values of the model parameters. Since the continuous manipulator system is digitally controlled along a trajectory, a discretized equivalent model of the manipulator is used to derive the controller. The motivation for decentralized control is that the derived algorithms can be executed in parallel using a distributed, relatively inexpensive, architecture where each joint is assigned a microprocessor. Nonlinear interaction and coupling between joints is treated as a disturbance torque that is estimated and compensated for.

Tumeh, Zuheir S.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Space Transformation -- Localizing the Remote and Connecting the Isolated

In motivating the Space Transformation theme for this year’s 4S symposium, the organizers provided the following context, “Transformation of economies are driven by a change in values and accelerated by new technologies.” These words rang particularly true when I read them at the beginning of the holiday season. Like so many others, I was in the early phases of my Christmas shopping procrastination campaign, and I’d just been reflecting on how Amazon Prime was the transformational tool I’d been waiting for. Basic limiting principles of time and space, supply and demand, were all but erased by the Amazon Prime phenomenon. Coupled with emerging 3D printing and other adaptive manufacturing technologies, a transformation from deliberate planning to “think it … have it” had occurred, empowering me to procrastinate longer than I’d ever dreamed possible. The organizers went on to ponder, “Will space transformation also affect society?”, just as our team at the Air Force Research Lab’s (AFRL) Center for Rapid Innovation (CRI) were working alongside partners within our larger Integrated Capabilities Directorate, NASA’s Flight Opportunities and Small Spacecraft Technology programs, and DARPA’s Luna-10 program to develop technologies and execute demonstration missions that leverage the space domain to genuinely connect even the most remote and austere domains on the timeline of need. Picking apart the miracle that is Amazon prime, where does the model fail, and why? More relevantly to the theme of this year’s symposium, how can the space domain be used to overcome its limitations and minimize its weaknesses? Perhaps it is best assessed in the context of Use Cases. What are the Amazon delivery cost, schedule, and cargo limiters to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station, or the Lunar South Pole Research Station? This paper will explore enabling infrastructure that allows Amazon prime to thrive and assess the transformational enabling technologies that would be necessary to extend that miracle to the truly remote or the truly austere. Localizing the Remote • First, it will evaluate the ability of the on-going AFRL Rocket Cargo and Space Initiatives Ringside Seats systems, coupled with Astrobotic’s Xodiak and Xogdor capabilities, developed to support the NASA Flight Opportunities Program (FOP), to supply orbital/suborbital delivery to both improved and austere sites on the Earth and Moon. • Then, it will add the surface terminal distribution leg, with an examination of Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), equipped with Mobile Autonomous Robotic Swarm (MARS) software, and Intuitive Machine’s Hopper, developed with support of AFRL and NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Connecting the Isolated From there, it will focus on the destination, asking what implied destination services are required to support highly assured autonomous delivery. • Specifically, it will highlight Astrobotic’s Skymage mesh-networked publish and subscribe communication and navigation service, as well as AFRL’s on-going developments of radioisotope and reactor nuclear-sourced thermoelectric power generation and distribution systems under development under the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-orbit Nuclear Power (JETSON) program by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, Intuitive Machines, and Zeno Power, to provide the power service to locations well off the grid. • Finally, the paper will connect to the “human machine”. What connects the remote or in-situ human consumer to the remote domain? What connects the diverse international government and commercial services to each other? The former will focus on AFRL’s OraCloud feeding their Space Defense Control and Characterization System (SDCCS) and Lunar Station’s MoonHacker systems, while the latter will focus on the BlueHalo/Tensor LunX Technology Platform for the Cislunar Commodity Marketplace. In 1984, Krafft Ehricke famously remarked that, “If God wanted man to become a spacefaring species, He would have given man a Moon.” This paper is not about the Moon, but is about humans as a spacefaring species, shedding the pesky land/air limitations of the Amazon Prime model … so that we can all live a procrastinator’s “think it … have it” existence.

Charles Finley↗
NASA NTRS1980

Stress analysis of bonded plates and joints

The paper presents a general numerical method of solution to the transverse normal stress and longitudinal shear stress distributions in the adhesive layers of bonded stiffener plates, double lap joints, and strap joints, all of dissimilar orthotropic adherends. The bending deformations and the transverse shear deformations are included in the analytical model. The present influence of bending deformations of adherends on both the normal and shear stresses in adhesive layers is discussed in detail for practical cases.

Yuceoglu, U.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Joint state and parameter estimation

Recent results are described concerning the problem of state reconstruction for a class of nonlinear distributed systems. The methods are then applied to the problem of joint state and parameter estimation. An example with the wave equation is presented.

Carmichael, N.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Effect of photochemical models on calculated equilibria and cooling rates in the stratosphere

The determination of the relaxation time of a temperature perturbation in the stratosphere must take into account the effects of the absorption of solar energy by ozone, while the ozone density itself is dependent on temperature. A photochemical model, consisting of continuity equations for each of 29 constituents with reaction rates and adjustment times, is used to obtain the vertical distribution of ozone. The altitude range from 35 to 60 km in non-Arctic regions is shown to be in approximate joint radiative-photochemical equilibrium. The temperature and ozone distributions are thus well buffered. Modest changes in ozone and temperature were calculated on the basis of this model from large changes in cooling rates and reaction rates, and the results are shown to be more in line with actual observations. The importance of estimating the mixing ratios for NO and H2O is emphasized.

Blake, D.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Nondestructive Evaluation of Adhesively Bonded Joints by Acousto-Ultrasonic Technique and Acoustic Emission

Reliable applications of adhesively bonded joints require an effective nondestructive evaluation technique for their bond strength prediction. To properly evaluate factors affecting bond strength, effects of defects such as voids and disbonds on stress distribution in the overlap region must be understood. At the same time, in order to use acousto-ultrasonic (AU) technique to evaluate bond quality, the effect of these defects on dynamic response of single lap joints must be clear. The stress distribution in a single lap joint with and without defects (void or disbond) is analyzed. A bar-Theta parameter which contains adherend and adhesive thickness and properties is introduced. It is shown for bonded joints with bar-Theta greater than 10, that a symmetric void or disbond in the middle of overlap up to the 70 percent of overlap length has negligible effect on bond strength. In contrast frequency response analyses by a finite element technique showed that the dynamic response is affected significantly by the presence of voids or disbonds. These results have direct implication in the interpretations of AU results. Through transmission attenuation and a number of AU parameters for various specimens with and without defects are evaluated. It is found that although void and disbond have similar effects on bond strength (stress distribution), they have completely different effects on wave propagation characteristics. For steel-adhesive-steel specimens with voids, the attenuation changes are related to the bond strength. However, the attenuation changes for specimens with disbond are fairly constant over a disbond range. In order to incorporate the location of defects in AU parameters, a weighting function is introduced. Using an immersion system with focused transducers, a number of AU parameters are evaluated. It is found that by incorporating weighting functions in these parameters better sensitivities (AU parameters vs. bond strength) are achieved. Acoustic emission (AE) activities of steel-adhesive-steel specimens with bar-Theta equal to 3.4 are monitored. Two different formats of energy vs. time have resulted, each corresponding to the perfect specimens or the specimens with void or disbond. The relative acoustic energy and the number of events at failure are found to be a means for predicting the bond strength.

Nayeb-Hashemi, Hamid↗
NASA NTRS2001

On Orbital Elements of Extrasolar Planetary Candidates and Spectroscopic Binaries

We estimate probability densities of orbital elements, periods, and eccentricities, for the population of extrasolar planetary candidates (EPC) and, separately, for the population of spectroscopic binaries (SB) with solar-type primaries. We construct empirical cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) in order to infer probability distribution functions (PDFs) for orbital periods and eccentricities. We also derive a joint probability density for period-eccentricity pairs in each population. Comparison of respective distributions reveals that in all cases EPC and SB populations are, in the context of orbital elements, indistinguishable from each other to a high degree of statistical significance. Probability densities of orbital periods in both populations have P(exp -1) functional form, whereas the PDFs of eccentricities can he best characterized as a Gaussian with a mean of about 0.35 and standard deviation of about 0.2 turning into a flat distribution at small values of eccentricity. These remarkable similarities between EPC and SB must be taken into account by theories aimed at explaining the origin of extrasolar planetary candidates, and constitute an important clue us to their ultimate nature.

Stepinski, T. F.↗
NASA NTRS1999

TRMM Realtime Data Production, Transfer, and Future Plans

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, a joint US NASA and Japan NASDA mission, was launched on November 27, 1997 from Tanegashima Island, Japan on a NASDA provided H-II launch vehicle. The TRMM objectives are: to obtain and study multi-year science data sets of tropical and sub- tropical rainfall measurement; to understand how interactions between the sea, air, and land masses produce changes in global rainfall and climate; to help improve modeling of tropical rainfall processes; to test, evaluate, and improve the performance of satellite rainfall estimates measurements and techniques. The routine production and quick distribution of standard products provides an important underpinning to these objectives. The determination of standard TRMM algorithms and the requirements for routine production and distribution fall within the authority of the joint US-Japan Science Team. In April of 1998, the Joint TRMM Science team requested that TRMM data be made available in near real-time to approved international agencies and modelers. This request was an addition to the routine production of the standard TRMM data products. The science team requested that near-realtime products be as small as possible to facilitate their transfer via networks. Indeed, it was determined that only network transfer would be available. This presentation provides an overview of the type of products available from the realtime system and how the TRMM system was developed at the lowest cost in the shortest amount of time. It then describes the real-time data flow. The presentation also summarizes how the science quality of real-time data is maintained. It describes how interested groups can get access to this data and the importance of networks for the future of real-time data expansion. The presentation concludes real-time possibilities and improvements possible as part of the proposed Global Precipitation Mission. High speed network access availability is an important catalyst to real-time data flow during the proposed mission.

Stocker, Erich Franz↗
NASA NTRS1994

Particle Distribution in Suspension Shear Flow

An earlier proposed constitutive relation for normal stresses originated by random particle fluctuations is used to describe a joint effect of thermal and shear-induced fluctuations on concentrational distributions in suspension flow. Averaged products of components of the fluctuation velocity are evaluated on a basis of the rational mechanics approach combined with a simple kinematic consideration. The equation of momentum conservation of the dispersed phase of a suspension closed with this constitutive relation is applied to unidirectional shear flow in the gravity field and to rotational Couette flow. Coupling of the thermal and shear-induced fluctuations results in that the ability of shear flow to suspend particles has a minimum at a certain particle size, all other things being equal. The developed model provides also for a reasonable explanation of particle distributions observed in Couette flow. The approach based on the consideration of momentum balance for the dispersed phase is proved to lead to an effective equation of convective diffusion of the suspended particles. Coefficients of mutual diffusion due to both thermal and shear-induced fluctuations are drastically different from corresponding self-diffusivities as regards both their scaling and their concentrational dependence.

Buyevich, Yu A.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Bivariate normal, conditional and rectangular probabilities: A computer program with applications

Some results for the bivariate normal distribution analysis are presented. Computer programs for conditional normal probabilities, marginal probabilities, as well as joint probabilities for rectangular regions are given: routines for computing fractile points and distribution functions are also presented. Some examples from a closed circuit television experiment are included.

Swaroop, R.↗
NASA NTRS1973

High latitude ionospheric winds related to solar-interplanetary conditions

Treated jointly, two recent results imply that the distribution of winds in the polar ionosphere should change as a function of the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. (1) From the motions of chemically released ion and neutral clouds, it is apparent that neutral winds in the high latitude ionosphere are driven principally by ion drag forces. (2) OGO-6 electric field measurements have demonstrated that there are definite relationships between the time-latitude distribution of ionospheric plasma convection and interplanetary magnetic field parameters, and also that the distribution is most sensitive to the azimuthal angle of the interplanetary field. Although direct neutral wind to interplanetary magnetic field comparisons are not available, logic clearly implies a close relationship. The lower altitude, meteorological effects of these externally driven ionospheric winds are not known. However, observations of infrasonic waves following sudden ionization enhancements indicate the existence of momentum transfer.

Heppner, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1975

High-latitude ionospheric winds related to solar-interplanetary conditions

Treated jointly, two recent results imply that the distribution of winds in the polar ionosphere should change as a function of the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field. From the motions of chemically released ion and neutral clouds, it is apparent that neutral winds in the high-latitude ionosphere are driven principally by ion drag forces. OGO 6 electric field measurements demonstrate that there are definite relationships between the time/latitude distribution of ionospheric plasma convection and interplanetary magnetic field parameters, and also that the distribution is most sensitive to the azimuthal angle of the inter planetary field. Although direct neutral wind to interplanetary magnetic field comparisons are not available, logic clearly implies a close relationship. Observations of infrasonic waves following sudden ionization enhancements indicate the existence of momentum transfer.

Heppner, J. P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Maximum aposteriori joint source/channel coding

A maximum aposteriori probability (MAP) approach to joint source/channel coder design is presented in this paper. This method attempts to explore a technique for designing joint source/channel codes, rather than ways of distributing bits between source coders and channel coders. For a nonideal source coder, MAP arguments are used to design a decoder which takes advantage of redundancy in the source coder output to perform error correction. Once the decoder is obtained, it is analyzed with the purpose of obtaining 'desirable properties' of the channel input sequence for improving overall system performance. Finally, an encoder design which incorporates these properties is proposed.

Sayood, Khalid↗
NASA NTRS1995

An architecture and protocol for communications satellite constellations regarded as multi-agent systems

This paper presents an architecture for satellites regarded as intercommunicating agents. The architecture is based upon a postmodern paradigm of artificial intelligence in which represented knowledge is regarded as text, inference procedures are regarded as social discourse and decision making conventions and the semantics of representations are grounded in the situated behaviour and activity of agents. A particular protocol is described for agent participation in distributed search and retrieval operations conducted as joint activities.

Lindley, Craig A.↗
NASA NTRS1998

NASA CORE: Central Operation of Resources for Educators-Educational Materials Catalog

The NASA Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE), established in cooperation with Lorain County Joint Vocational School, serves as the worldwide distribution center for NASA-produced educational materials. For a minimal charge, CORE will provide a valuable service to educators unable to visit one of the NASA Educator Resource Centers by making NASA educational audiovisual materials available through its mail order service. Through CORE's distribution network, the public has access to more than 200 videocassette, slide, and CD-ROM programs, chronicling NASA!s state-of-the-art research and technology. Through the use of these curriculum supplement materials, teachers can provide their students with the latest in aerospace information. NASAs educational materials on aeronautics and space provide a springboard for classroom discussion of life science, physical science, astronomy, energy, Earth resources, environment, mathematics, and career education.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2010

Applied Joint-Space Torque and Stiffness Control of Tendon-Driven Fingers

Existing tendon-driven fingers have applied force control through independent tension controllers on each tendon, i.e. in the tendon-space. The coupled kinematics of the tendons, however, cause such controllers to exhibit a transient coupling in their response. This problem can be resolved by alternatively framing the controllers in the joint-space of the manipulator. This work presents a joint-space torque control law that demonstrates both a decoupled and significantly faster response than an equivalent tendon-space formulation. The law also demonstrates greater speed and robustness than comparable PI controllers. In addition, a tension distribution algorithm is presented here to allocate forces from the joints to the tendons. It allocates the tensions so that they satisfy both an upper and lower bound, and it does so without requiring linear programming or open-ended iterations. The control law and tension distribution algorithm are implemented on the robotic hand of Robonaut-2.

Abdallah, Muhammad E.↗